I’ve always been fascinated by tattoos, since I was a child when my mother made me promise I’d never get a tattoo. Naturally I gave myself my first tattoo when I was 14, in a rebellious teenage moment. When I was 12 I started to listen to alternative rock music, and became obsessed with buying magazines and pulling out posters of my idols, almost all of whom were covered in tattoos. The people I drew began to be tattooed, and I enjoyed the process of designing them. At that age I did consider being a tattooist, but I wasn’t sure of how I would be able to achieve this, so put that idea aside for several years. I remember looking at tattoos on Pinterest, small and simple ones that I thought my mum wouldn’t mind- but as I got older and my mental health deteriorated to the point of hospitalisation, I began drawing on my skin with pens and henna.
This was partly to cover my scars, to prevent me making more, but I loved how it looked, how I could create beauty on my skin over the top of the pain. I continued to give myself small and usually bad tattoos, until I could finally get my first ‘real’ one. In August of 2020 I got my first proper tattoo, a huge sleeve that covers my right thigh. It features my cat Tabitha who passed away after being in my life for nearly 14 years, in a beautiful art nouveau style, framed in gold and surrounded by flowers. It was done by Georgina Liliane, at Gold Dagger tattoo in Winchester. This tattoo means so much to me, not only because of its design and the personal meaning to me, but also because it covers up nearly a decade of scar tissue on my leg. When I become a tattoo artist, I want to specialise in scar cover ups, because for me personally, being able to see the pain of the past covered in something so amazingly beautiful, means more to me than anything.
Tattooing to me is the most ancient and beautiful way of self expression that exists. It is older than any civilisation of mankind, and has been found throughout almost every culture of the ancient world, proving that since humans started to draw on the walls, they began to draw on themselves. The art has developed over millennia, and continues to change and improve, through new artists with new ideas. The industry is difficult to get into, especially in the era of covid-19, but this is my dream and I am so determined to become a part of it, to be able to create beautiful art on people’s skin that lasts forever.
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